Leonard B. Daybrest

Formerly of Pocatello, Idaho passed away due to natural causes at Benefis Hospital in Great Falls, Montana on April 27th, 2011. He leaves behind two nieces, one nephew and several great-nieces and great-nephews.
Leonard was born in Glenrock, Virginia on May 31st, 1927 second son after William, to Jalmer and Elizabeth (Hendricksen) Daybrest. Shortly after his birth the family moved to Lava Hot Springs, Idaho where a third son, Elmer, was born. Leonard attended school in Lava Hot Springs and joined the US Army in 1945. He attained the rank of corporal and served as a sharpshooter and cannoneer. His military awards include the WWII Victory Medal and Army of Occupation Medal.
After receiving an Honorable Discharge from the Army in 1947, Leonard returned home and worked at the Hill Sawmill Co. and Kraft Cheese. In 1963 he earned an Industrial Electronics degree from Weltech College in Salt Lake City and opened a business repairing televisions and radios. He later worked for several outfitters as a guide and packer and for the Teton Nation Forest as a trail maintenance foreman, retiring in 1989. This allowed him to devote his time to his first love, gunsmithing.
Leonard had a natural gift of being able to understand and build or repair any commercial firearm he touched. He did anything from small repairs on handguns, shotguns and rifles to building custom rifles and reworking standard rifles to make them shoot extremely accurate and perform impeccably. The highest classification of gunsmithing is Master Gunsmith and for those of us who had Leonard work on our firearms Leonard is way past Master and well into “Artist”. The remarkable part of Leonard's gunsmithing abilities is that he had no instruction, informal or formal, in the craft of gunsmithing. Leonard was self-taught. He even learned how to use the tools of the trade the same way, he taught himself. His favorite types of firearms were the large caliber rifles commonly used for big and mean animals in case of an “Up Close and Personal” encounter. When he wasn't working on guns he loved to hunt, fish and camp in the mountains. In addition to his accomplishments with firearms Leonard was a master entertainer with all of the stories he told of his exploits in the mountains and guns he had worked on. He could tell stories for hours and never tell the same one twice. Leonard may be gone, but he'll never be forgotten.
He was preceded in death by his parents and brothers William (“Willie”) and Elmer.